Building Communities of Teachers & Learners:
The WebCT E-Learning Hub
Introduction
Since its inception, the web has been used for content, research, and publishing
in educational contexts. In the beginning, resources were limited, but excitement
about the possibilities was great. Resources now have reached proportions only
dreamed of, but the excitement has perhaps diminished in some ways due to the
overwhelming amount of information now online. Instructors often have insufficient
time and resources to assemble meaningful materials, and students often lack
the skills to evaluate web-based materials critically or find appropriate materials
for their work (cf. Berghal, 1997). One answer to this dilemma is the
development of learning portals, online locations that offer searchable indices
of discipline-specific data, downloadable learning modules, including syllabi,
examinations, slide shows, and so on, and areas for ongoing discussion of academic
issues.
As more and more courses throughout higher education include web-based components,
the goal of e-learning hubs is to:
- make it easier for faculty to offer pedagogically meaningful web-based
experiences;
- make it easier for institutions to support faculty members creating and
delivering web-based course; and, to
- ensure that students gain the advantages that having the web available
to them should bring.
Community Features
We have been working with WebCT's e-learning hub (WebCT.com), which launched
in January 2000, to build such a portal. WebCT.com's purpose is to provide a
place where students, faculty, and web education professionals can go to find
content and community to support them as they teach and learn using the World
Wide Web. WebCT.com enables faculty and web education professionals and institutions
to:
- offer and gain access to high quality content created by publishers, faculty
and institutions that they can use in their courses thereby leveraging valuable
course development time;
- give and get advice about teaching using the web from others who are actually
doing it, in their discipline, in their subject, with their class size or
their teaching style--practitioners helping practitioners; and,
- provide students with educational experiences and practical support beyond
a single class experience therefore enriching their educational experience
overall.
WebCT is a robust platform that enables instructors and schools to build database-driven
courses and course supplements.
Discipline Support
The strong focus of this experience is community. From the beginning,
faculty and users of WebCT's platform have created a wide network of support
through discussion groups and conferences. The WebCT.com e-learning hub extends
the reach of support within the disciplines by providing additional functionalities,
namely:
- A library for each community where web content and courses can be
placed in downloadable form. (WebCT will also centrally host web content so
that it can be previewed and linked to.) The library is searchable using metadata
tags taken from the Instructional Management Systems (IMS) set--i.e., using
search criteria specific to standards established for the field of education;
- Discipline targeted web search--a unique capability that allows
students and faculty to search the web within a discipline area.
- A directory of useful, educational websites for each community.
These websites have been reviewed by professionals in the discipline for quality
and relevance;
- Ability to sign up for community specific newsletters;
- Ability to participate in community forums using bulletin board
technology;
- Ability to find discipline-specific WebCT resources from publishing partners;
- Ability to recommend and purchase tradebooks of interest to community members;
- Ability for students to purchase access to publisher materials online.
There are currently ten discipline-based communities:
- English
- Computer Science
- Life Sciences/Biology
- Education
- Health Sciences/Medicine
- History
- Math
- Business
- Chemistry
- Psychology
Each community is led by one or two community leaders who are experts in the
discipline together with a team of forum leaders who are specialists in sub-disciplines
of each community. This poster highlights the functionality of WebCT.com and
its developing communities of teachers and learners.
References
- Berghel, H. (1997, Feb.). "Cyberspace 2000: Dealing with Information
Overload," Communications of the ACM, p. 19.
- IMS Global Learning Consortium, http://www.imsproject.org/
- The WebCT E-Learning Hub, http://www.webct.com
- The WebCT Platform, http://about.webct.com
Vitae